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Tokyo's Underworld
Tokyo's Underworld has a long and complicated history, with several notable figures and groups influencing it's growth, downfall, and rebirth over the last 40 years. The central organization is, of course, the Yakuza, but even their presence has waxed and waned over the last half a century. Brief History The Yakuza have been called the Japanese Mafia by westerners for a long time, but their organization is slightly more modern than it's Cosa Nostra counterpart. They rose to public prominence post WW2, where they made several deals with the Japanese government of the time. Since then, the government and the Yakuza have been basically inseparable. One does not attain power in Japan without the right favors and contacts, and almost every political campaign in Japan is supported by Yakuza members, if not being run by them. Since their first dealings, the Yakuza have worked to keep hard drugs out of Japan and have been largely successful, mostly due to their control of the Amphetamine black market, as well as several other deals, such as protection rackets and bodyguard or intimidation work. Several social stigmas about tattoos exist in Japan solely due to the Yakuza, and one does not say 'crime' without immediately thinking of the Yakuza. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza Early 2000's In the early millennium, the Yakuza were dealt several powerful blows, which seriously loosened their grip on the Japanese crime scene. Hotel Moscow broke all the Yakuza rules by staging a direct attack in their territory, and crippling several of their activities by destroying whole chapters with automatic weapons. Following this affair came KIRA. ALL the known Yakuza heads were killed by this supernatural serial killer, and crime the world over hit it's lowest point. After KIRA's confirmed death, the Yakuza sought to re-establish their hold in the Japanese criminal underworld, but by then quite a few extra-normal individuals had already appeared and were making a name for themselves, which left the organization on the rise, but much slower than before, and by the time they re-established themselves as a major player, their grip was already loosened. Influence of Extra-normal Beings Late in the 90s, more and more special individuals made their mark in the Tokyo communities. The Get Backers, Schwarz, and various notable martial artists started making the scene, spurred on by the King of Fighters tournament and their own motivation. This changed the playing field dramatically. In a country where guns are outlawed, people who can do more damage with their fists than bullets made a very big splash in the underworld. There was an unwritten rule for the Yakuza and their allies to not deal with these people if they could at all avoid it. Since they seemed to mostly agree to this idea, the two barely ever met and both 'communities' stuck mostly to themselves, but any time someone took a piece of the pie, the whole got a bit smaller, so it was just a matter of time before SOMETHING happened.. KIRA What DID happen took everyone by surprise. Suddenly, criminals of all types, rank, power and protection started dying. Suspected or guilty, low lifer, runner or powerful head, no one was safe. And this was not just the Yakuza. Dictators, terrorist leaders, extra-normal beings, everyone was a target and no one was able to survive KIRA. Those who went after him died. Those who tried to copy him were likewise eliminated. This was a blow crime as a whole could barely even survive. Obviously, those who were operators in the shadows stayed alive, but any public figure associated with crime was killed, relentlessly, for almost ten years. No one was safe from KIRA, and every career criminal in the world was terrified that they would be next. Several tried to atone, some with success, many were eventually gotten to. In the year 2010, KIRA was confirmed dead, and the underworld collectively sighed in relief. Their long nightmare was finally over, but crime as a whole was a fraction of what it once was. Surgical and indiscriminate killings among their ranks made a lot of people afraid to return to crime, and those who had survived the whole way through were afraid to act overtly. Though he was the world's most prolific mass-murderer, KIRA had dropped crime rates the world over by over 70%, and the masses were generally relieved. The Black Book Club The richest and most depraved people in the world, who have become so jaded with life and their own general apathy towards the world, they find new and more perverse thrills to play with people's lives. The qualifications for entering the Black Book Club was to have an annual income roughly rivaling that of the European Union. They had their hands in all sorts of supernatural related crimes from the early 70's all the way into the late 90s, until many of them were killed by their newest member's betrayal. Whoever remained alive continued in their amoral activities, but by the end of KIRA's career, all of them had been killed, either by Kryptonbrand or by him. Notable People City Hunter: During the 80s and 90s, the code 'XYZ' was used in the Shinjuku message board to reach the help of the Sweeper, City Hunter, known in the business of killers as the best of the pros.. and self-styled Stud of Shinjuku. One of City Hunter's notable efforts was preventing the Teope Union from establishing a foothold in Japan, and he has been linked to the death of several professional killers over his career. He apparently retired in the mid-90s, but rumours that he and a new partner have worked into the new millennium have been heard since. Weiss: The Third incarnation of Weiß operated mostly in Tokyo's underworld, targeting criminals whose crimes were unknown, off-limits due to political or monetary-based corruption, operating under Kritiker, another group whose purview was investigation of unreported crimes. Weiss stopped working as a unit roughly around the mid-point of KIRA's career. Get Backers: The third group of Get Backers, G'inji Amano and '''B'an Midou, became active in the early 2000s, operating in the Shinjuku area, to retrieve people's missing or stolen property from their unrightful holders. Obviously, the GB were often dealing with criminals of both the extra-natural or more mundane origins, much as they tried to avoid it. '''The Takatori Family: A very powerful political and economic concern in Japan, the Takatori Family had allies and enemies everywhere. Most corporate and political crime in Japan was in some way linked to the Takatori family, and the excesses of Reiji Takatori and his two sons were very widespread. Many people were offered protection from criminal pursuits by the Takatori family, and many more still were basically indebted to them for life. Reiji Takatori's reign as the 'top man' of crime in Japan was cemented by Schwarz acting as his personal bodyguards for a good, long time.. until they abandoned him in the middle of an attack by Weiß. That was the last breath of Reiji Takatori, killed by the people who'd killed his sons and betrayed by his last ace in the hole. KIRA: Light Yagami, who was on the Special Police Force for KIRA and had everyone fooled, was revealed to be the mass murdered known as KIRA in January of 2010, where he was killed on the spot by detective Matsuda. Besides the many, many criminals he killed, he also killed the legendary detective known as 'L', and the head of the SPK, Inspector Souichiro Yagami. The Miroku Seven: VOLTS: Category:Organization Category:Setting Category:Organization Category:Setting